Yale University Commons, 168 Grove Street (corner of College
Street and Grove Street)

New Haven, Conn.

1-800-MARROW-2

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The final preparations
are in place for the marrow donor testing drive that the Yale
football and women’s ice hockey teams will lead on Thursday,
Apr. 22, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Commons. The testing consists of
a simple cheek swab. The drive is free, open to the public and
includes pizza and light lunch refreshments. The drive is part of
the “Get in the Game. Save a Life.” campaign for the
National Marrow Donor Program. Thousands of patients with leukemia
and other life-threatening diseases depend on resources like the
NMDP’s Be The Match Registry to find a match. That includes
Yale women’s ice hockey forward Mandi
Schwartz, who has been seeking a match ever since being
diagnosed with leukemia.

In the spirit of breaking the record Yale established last year,
when more than 700 potential life-saving donors signed up, the
Bulldogs are taking an even more proactive approach this year.
Members of both teams have already pre-assembled hundreds of donor
kits. That will save valuable time for everyone on the day of the
drive itself. Yale is also keeping an eye on some of the numbers
posted by recent drives at other schools, including:

Villanova: 701

Duquesne: 428

Penn: 410

Temple: 405, including a match for their football manager with
leukemia

News Channel 8 anchor Ann Nyberg will be on hand at the start of
the drive to greet participants. The drive is also scheduled to
include appearances by Yale’s live bulldog mascot, Handsome
Dan, and Yale’s costumed mascot, Boola. Student-athletes and
coaches from both teams will also be there.

To join the registry, a person must be between the ages of 18
and 60, meet the health guidelines and be willing to donate to any
patient in need. The donor test consists of a simple cheek swab. No
blood or needles are involved and the test will only take
approximately 15 minutes. There is no cost to be
tested. Individuals will become a member of the National
Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) Be The Match Registry.

Those who took part in last year’s drive are
already in the registry, so there is no need for them to be tested
again.Yale is seeking to add as many new donors
as possible, so those who were tested at last year’s drive
are encouraged to find friends who did not get tested last year and
encourage them to take part in this year’s drive.

Every year, thousands of people of all ages are diagnosed
with leukemia and other life-threatening diseases. Many of them
will die unless they get a bone marrow or cord blood transplant
from a matching donor. Seventy percent of people do not have a
donor in their family and depend on the Be The Match
Registry® to find a match to
save their life.

The “Get in the Game. Save a Life.” program started
in 1992 at Villanova under the guidance of head football coach Andy
Talley. Larry Ciotti, an 18-year assistant coach at Yale, is a
friend of Talley’s and brought the idea to Tom Williams,
Yale’s Joel E. Smilow ’54 Head Coach of Football. The
Yale football team held its first drive in April of 2009, with help
from the women’s ice hockey team since Schwartz had been
diagnosed with leukemia in December of 2008.

The “Get in the Game. Save a Life.” program has
resulted in more than 11,500 potential donors being tested,
including Villanova football player Joe Marcoux, who wound up being
a match after taking part in a marrow donor testing drive in the
spring of 2006. Marcoux donated blood-forming cells to a patient in
need that December. Additionally, Villanova wide receiver Matt
Szczur recently donated to a 1-year old girl with leukemia.

Talley has recently partnered with the National Marrow Donor
Program to take his efforts to the national level. He received
commitments from nearly 30 college football programs, including
Yale, last year. That resulted in 8,022 people
being entered into the national registry. Yale screened more than
700 potential donors, including two who wound up
being matches.

There are eight million people who are registered on the Be The
Match Registry. Since the registry began operations in 1987, it
has facilitated more than 38,000 transplants to give
patients a second chance at life. Today, it facilitates
more than 4,800 transplants a year.

Those interested in participating in the Yale marrow donor
testing drive can contact Larry Ciotti with the Yale football team
at larry.ciotti@yale.edu
or (203) 671-9805, or simply stop by Commons between 11 a.m. and 3
p.m. on Thursday, Apr. 22.

Those unable to attend the drive who would still like to
be tested are encouraged to visit the National Marrow Donor Program
website at www.marrow.org